Chapter 5 - Pom-Pom Parlar with Denis
June 1990
It was another really hot day. All the days have been hot for ages. Mum and Robboaw buy me lots of arshees, but I can’t walk very far. I get really tired and sweaty and need to sit down.
Arvoom is my place now. I go there every day and do loads of stuff. Robboaw takes me for loads of walks and drives in the big car. Mum is a lot happier. Dad is home more and doesn’t go out at night so much. Jake is always out walking in Adinna with the babbobs. He’s always muddy. We never see Joss. She doesn’t argue with people as much as she used to. That’s because we never see her. Grame doesn’t have a tashey anymore.
We were driving back from Arvoom. Me and Mum were both really hot. I wore my shorts and a T-shirt, but I still felt hot. All the windows were open, but I still put my face in front of the air blower – it made me feel cooler. Mum still looked hot. We always go and see Cath after Arvoom. I like Cath. She always smiles and gives me a hug. She makes Mum smile a lot. I don’t like her cake much – it’s not as nice as Gran’s cake. Her Pom-Pom Parlar taste nice. Apart from her cake, I like her. All the people we know in Adinna are nice and friendly. The lady from the shop is called Edna. She lets me watch her telly sometimes. The lady up the hill, who I hugged in the road on our first day in Adinna, is nice and always gives me sweeties when I see her.
Jake’s friends aren’t that nice. I call them babbobs because it’s a funny word and they make me laugh. They always wear wellyboots and always stink of smelly mud. Joss always laughs when she sees them. They don’t talk to me or smile at me. I try giving them hugs, but Jake just shouts at me. They go a bit red and look away from me and pretend I’m not there, so I give them more hugs and try to give them sticks so they know I’m friendly. If that doesn’t work, I shout at them or run around smacking my arse.
Cath lives in a little house with no upstairs. When I first went there, I didn’t know what to do because I couldn’t find a good window to Watch from. Now I just go into Cath’s bedroom and Watch from there. She doesn’t mind. She sits with Mum and talks to her and makes her smile. Dad doesn’t make Mum smile anymore. He hasn’t made Mum smile for a long time.
We stopped the car at home and walked to Cath’s house. It was so hot I didn’t even run off like I normally do; I just walked with Mum and held her hand. I ran round to the back door and ran into Cath’s kitchen. Cath was washing up. I gave her a big hug then ran past her and straight into the bedroom. I knew she would bring me a Pom-Pom Parlar – she always does. I felt good about that. I felt so hot I just wanted to sit down somewhere cool and drink a Pom-Pom Parlar. After a while Cath brought me a Pom-Pom Parlar and an arshee. I touched her hand and blew her some kisses. She is so nice. I could hear Mum laughing in the other room. I don’t know what she was laughing at. Silly things always make my Mum laugh. She doesn’t mind if nobody else finds it funny or even if there’s nobody in the same room as her. Her funny pictures with the bright colours on the wall used to make her laugh, but she’s taken them all away now. There are just pictures of me, Jake and Joss. I drank my Pom-Pom Parlar really fast and ate my arshee.
I like being in Cath’s house. It’s really quiet and has a good smell. I can just sit at the window and Watch for a little while before going home. It gives me a little time to calm down after Arvoom, because home isn’t as good as it used to be and not as much fun anymore. It isn’t really fun at Cath’s, but at least it feels nicer.
Before Tea Watch – From Cath’s room
I sat Watching Adinna while Mum talked to Cath. I’d finished my arshee ages before, and now my Pom-Pom Parlar was finished. I felt a little bored and hot. Cath doesn’t like to open the windows. I could hear Mum talking in the other room.
“He’s working at last – which is a relief,” said Mum.
I thought if I took my shoes off I might cool off a bit. So I did. It didn’t really help that much. It did feel nicer. What I needed was a nice cold bath…
“I’m not interested in going to the pub with him, and he’s not interested in going to the Church group or the art class with me,” said Mum.
I still felt hot. I tried to open the window but Cath must have locked it. I thought the only way to get any cooler was to take my T-shirt off. So I did…
“No, we’ve never spoken about it – not since we moved here,” said Mum.
If anything, I felt hotter and I couldn’t breathe properly. Jake walked past with some of the babbobs. I banged on the window and shouted ‘alloaw’. Jake shook his head and turned the other way. The babbobs looked at me and laughed. I blew them some kisses. Jake shook his head and looked back at me and pulled his clothes at me. I didn’t understand that. I was so hot and all the sweat was dripping down me – I had to get cooler somehow. I took my shorts off…
“What about the kids?” said Cath.
“I don’t know,” said Mum.
I felt a lot cooler now, but I still sweated loads where I wore my arse shorts. Jake had walked over the bridge so I couldn’t see him anymore. I really couldn’t understand why he’d been pulling at his clothes. It was good to see the babbobs laughing. They never smile normally. I took my arse shorts off.
“At least we can talk. We certainly don’t do anything else,” said Mum.
Arvoom had been really good that day. We’d just sat outside eating arshees all day and throwing water at each other. Robboaw got the hose pipe and sprayed water all over me. That really made me laugh. I love playing games with water. I filled a big bucket full of water and threw it all over him. He laughed so much somebody had to take him inside. He came back outside later and slipped in the mud and fell straight on his arse. I laughed so much my belly hurt. I decided that I could do with some water now. I walked out into the living room to ask Mum for a glass of water. I don’t know why she got so angry. Maybe if she’d taken her clothes off and got cooler she wouldn’t have been so angry. Cath laughed and gave me funny looks.
“Big lad, innem?” she kept saying. I don’t know why.
Mum took me back into the bedroom and put all my clothes back on. After that she said ‘sorry’ loads of times to Cath, who kept laughing and patting me on the back. After that we went home. Mum went into the kitchen and started to cook tea. Nobody else was at home. Home has got really strange recently. Ages ago when I used to come home from school, or when I first started at Arvoom, everybody would be there. Jake and Joss would be laughing and Dad would be shouting. Mum would be laughing and I would be Watching. Now when I get home, it’s always quiet. When Jake gets home he’s really quiet. Joss hardly ever comes home at all and when she does she never speaks to anybody. Dad hardly ever shouts at anyone because there’s no one to shout at. My family are still here, but I never notice them. It feels like just me and Mum all the time. I love Arvoom and being with Robboaw. Mum will come with me to Arvoom sometimes and we go out with Robboaw. The others never come to Arvoom. We are still a family – we’re just not as loud anymore. We’re a quiet family. Everybody has their own thing to do. Except me and Mum. We’re the only loud people in the family now. Adinna has made everyone quiet except for me and Mum.
There was a bang at the door. That surprised me. Nobody ever uses the front door in Adinna. Everybody goes through the back door. Mum walked from the kitchen to the front door and pulled really hard – it took her ages to open it, and it made a cracking noise. There was lots of talking and high voices and hugging and hellos. It sounded like Mum’s friend, Valerie. I’m not sure if I like Valerie. She talks nicely to me and makes me Pom-Pom Parlar, but I’m not sure if I like her properly.
Valerie stood in the doorway, hugging Mum and talking. That’s why I’m not sure if I like her or not – because she talks all the time. She never stops talking. Mum tries to say something and can’t because Valerie talks all the time. I stood in the doorway to the living room and watched Valerie talking at Mum. Valerie then saw me and came over to give me a hug. I hugged her back and rubbed my teeth and said ‘dinnaow’. I was hungry.
“Oh my god. You’ve grown so much,” said Valerie. I never understand any of her words. Her voice is too high.
Behind Valerie stood a man. I’d never seen him before. He looked funny. His hair looked like Robboaw’s, only bigger – there was no hair at all at the sides but the middle stood up straight and tall. He looked like a weird bird. He had a metal earwig going in and out of his nose. He also had something painted on his arm. Dad has something like that painted on his arm and it never comes off. I’ve tried to rub it off loads of times. The painting on the man’s hand had more colours than Dad’s. The man looked strange. He didn’t smile or say anything.
Valerie stopped hugging me and went back to talking to Mum. I couldn’t stop looking at the man. He just stood behind Mum and Valerie, holding some bags. He looked funny with his weird bird-hair, his painted arm and his nose earwig. He didn’t look happy; he didn’t look sad either. He just looked at Mum and Valerie. Then he looked at me. That’s when he smiled. I stepped back a bit. He was a little scary.
“This is Denis,” said Valerie.
“Hi,” said the man. He put the bags down and walked up to Mum. He put his hand out and held Mum’s hand. Then he pulled it up and down. Valerie moved her eyes around and smiled. Mum smiled a funny smile back at Valerie.
“Adam,” said the man, and looked at me without smiling. He stuck his hand out towards me. I noticed a long mark going all the way down his cheek and past his mouth – it looked like the one Dad had on his chest after he got poorly ages ago. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the man; he made me want to ask him loads of questions. The earwig in his nose bothered me the most. It must bang on his cup when he drinks a Pom-Pom Parlar…
“Adam, this is Denis. He’s trying to say hello,” said Mum.
Dennaben? Dennaben. I hadn’t heard that funny name before. It seemed to fit the man quite well. Dennaben. I decided that he was nice. I don’t know why. He didn’t smell bad and he looked quite funny. He didn’t have a tashey. I wondered if he liked games. I poked my tongue at him and ran to my room. I laughed all the way and shouted ‘alloaw’.
Before Tea Watch –
I sat up in my room, thinking about our visitors. We hadn’t had many visitors recently – maybe because our house is so quiet all the time. I noticed Joss walking over the bridge. She was holding a big white cigar just like Dad’s, except his are brown. She stopped, climbed through the broken bit of the wall and stumbled down to the river-bank. She looked really sad. She just stared down at the ground the whole time. She used to wear really bright clothes like Mum, but now she wears black clothes. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. Maybe she’d be happy to see Valerie. I wasn’t sure if she’d like Dennaben. She doesn’t like Jake, and she doesn’t like Dad that much. I don’t think she likes men much at all. I decided that Dennaben would be too quiet for her – she wouldn’t like him. I still wasn’t sure if I liked him. He looked so funny and his voice was really low. He’d tried talking to me. He’d also tried to touch me. He’d been gentle with Mum and she’d liked that. But who was he? Why was he in our home with Valerie? She used to visit with Gordon. I like Gordon. Gordon is really gentle and he talks to me properly. Valerie and Gordon shout at each other more than Mum and Dad do. Where was Gordon? Did he know that Valerie was here with Dennaben? I felt a little confused.
I saw Jake walking over the bridge. Joss climbed back through the broken bit of the wall, crept up behind him and jumped on him. That scared him and he pushed her away, making her laugh and push him back. I laughed – me and Joss are always making Jake angry. I opened my window, shouted ‘allaow’ and threw my big book with ladies onto the ground. I don’t know why. I like throwing things out my window. If I’m bored I’ll throw things out of other people’s window too (mostly Jake’s). Sometimes things break. Other times they just make a funny noise. Most of the time, my stuff is in the wrong place and I can’t find a right place for it all, so some of it has to be outside on the ground. This time I threw my big book with ladies out to annoy Jake. He hates it when I throw things out of my window and onto the ground. He has to go and get it. I like doing it more when it’s raining.
Joss walked in a funny way and held onto Jake around his neck. She was smiling and singing, but she didn’t seem happy. Jake pushed at Joss to get her to stop holding him. They got to the front door. Jake picked up the big book with ladies and waved his fist at me. I laughed and banged on my window, and they came in. I ran downstairs to say hello. Dennaben was sitting in my chair, talking to Jake and Joss. She smiled loads and her eyes were a funny colour. Jake took his wellyboots off and pretended to be grown up and quiet. He kept looking at Dennaben and tried to frown like Dad. Joss laughed at everything Dennaben said. Mum brought food out and we all sat down at the table. I sat next to Dennaben. I made sure I did. Even though I’d decided I liked him, I still wasn’t sure why I liked him. I decided to spend dinnaowtime finding out. He smiled a lot – mostly at Joss. Joss didn’t stop smiling and wore her dark glasses. Mum said stuff to Joss who breathed heavily and took her glasses off. I looked at Dennaben. He ate really quickly – nearly as fast as I eat. After a while, he looked back at me, but he still didn’t smile.
“What’s the matter, Adam?” said Dennaben.
I could feel everyone else around the table looking at me – they always do when a stranger speaks to me. Strangers don’t normally know what to say, so my family try and help them. Dennaben didn’t just speak to me – he looked at me as well. He looked into my eyes. He spoke to me as if he wanted me to speak back. People don’t usually do that. They usually say stuff to me and look at Mum and expect her to speak back for me. Dennaben just looked at me and waited for me to speak back. I felt funny and didn’t know what to do. Even Robboaw didn’t expect me to speak back. Dennaben kept looking at me. I looked back at Dennaben. I pulled my clothes and said ‘toylou tomorrow’. I wasn't sure what else to do.
Dennaben said something to me and carried on eating.
That felt really odd. Dennaben had spoken to me, I’d spoken back and then he’d said something else. That never normally happens. He’d looked me in the eyes and expected me to talk back to him. I didn’t understand what it was that he’d said, but we’d spoken. He’d treated me normally. I decided I liked him – he could be my friend. I still wasn't sure about the earwig. I tried to take it out for him – it was in the wrong place.
“Adam. Leave Denis alone when he’s trying to eat his dinner,” said Mum, smiling.
Dennaben laughed and put his knife and fork down. I let go of the earwig because I wasn’t sure if he might try and hurt me. Instead he grabbed my nose really gently, stared at it for a bit and then smiled. I don’t know why but that made me laugh. I don’t normally like people touching me. But I didn’t mind Dennaben touching me. He was really gentle. And I’d made him laugh. I wanted to make him laugh again, so I put my finger in his ear. Dennaben laughed again and stuck his finger in my ear and tickled my belly. That made me laugh even more.
Everyone else around the table just watched. Mum smiled. Jake and Joss didn’t really know how to look. But I felt really good. People never treat me like they treat each other – and Dennaben did. That made me feel really good. I ate my dinner and stared at Dennaben the whole time.
“I think this could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” said Valerie.
After Tea Watch –
After tea, I went to my room for a Watch and a think. But I didn’t stay for long. The day felt cooler than earlier and everyone wanted to go out for a walk. I wandered downstairs and sat in my chair, looking at everybody. Jake and Joss were trying to talk to Dennaben. Valerie tried to talk to Mum, but she was too busy watching Joss and Jake. She looked at me and smiled. Dad wasn't home yet. Jake ran and got the dog and we all met at the front door. I wandered off slowly – I felt too hot to walk fast. I expected Dennaben to walk with either Jake or Joss. Mum and Valerie would walk together. But I turned round and Dennaben walked towards me. He got to me and then walked next to me – and talked. I didn’t understand his words so I just carried on walking and looking at his face and his earwig and the line on his skin. Nobody apart from Mum or Robboaw wants to walk with me. It felt nice walking with Dennaben. I still didn’t know what he said, but I didn’t care. He didn’t hold my hand – I didn’t want him to. We were becoming proper friends. I don’t have many proper friends. Probably Robboaw is my best friend – but he has to be my friend. The little ladies in Adinna are nice but they are old – they aren’t really my friends. Dennaben is more like the sort of person I want to be friends with. He treats me the way I want to be treated. He doesn’t pretend. Even though I’d only just met him, I felt I could do anything or say anything to him. He’d look after me. I didn’t have to annoy him or try to make him laugh. He’d talk to me anyway. If he didn’t want to talk to me then that was OK. He treated me right.
I found a stick that looked quite good so I gave it to Dennaben. He looked at the stick and smiled.
“Sorry to sound a harsh mate, but this stick is crap,” he said. He threw it miles into a field. I laughed – nobody had ever done that before. People normally just say ‘Oh, that’s nice’, and they don’t really know what to do next. Dennaben smiled and walked to the ditch by the road and picked up this enormous stick. I smiled and stared at Dennaben’s stick. It was better than anything I’d ever found. I decided to play with him. I grabbed the stick off Dennaben and ran as fast as I could up the road. I laughed and shouted ‘bad’, but the stick kept banging against my legs. I stood on it and nearly fell over. I looked round and Dennaben ran after me. It didn’t take him long to catch me. He grabbed me carefully around my neck and started to tickle me. He then took the stick back. We were both laughing loads.
“This, my friend, belongs to me,” said Dennaben. “You want a stick as good as this? Then you find it yourself.”
I laughed and ran off again. Dennaben didn’t chase me this time – he just walked with his stick. I stopped and looked back. Joss, Jake, Mum and Valerie were walking slowly towards Dennaben. Mum smiled and laughed, but Joss and Jake didn’t look happy. We all walked to the field with the big tree in the middle. Dennaben walked with me and talked. I didn’t understand any of his words, but that didn’t matter. I just enjoyed having somebody apart from Mum and Robboaw to talk to.
After Bath Watch –
After walking home, we all did different things. I had a bath and got into my jimjams. Jake, Joss and Dennaben got dressed up in their nice clothes and went out. Mum and Valerie sat in the living room and talked. Dad still wasn’t home. I sat in my room and thought about Dennaben and how friendly he was. I don’t really understand where he’s come from or where he’s going, but I hope he stays for a while.
When the time got late and I couldn’t stop myself from yawning, I heard the front door go. Lots of voices and heavy footsteps woke me up and made me curious. I wondered downstairs to say hello. Joss and Dennaben were stood in the living room chatting to Mum and Valerie. Jake half-sat in the chair with his eyes shut. He tried to talk, but nobody could understand his words. Joss stared at Dennaben and smiled. Valerie stared at Joss and frowned. They all smelt like Dad when he comes home late at night. Dennaben looked at me and smiled. His eyes were a funny colour and looked half closed. So were Joss’. I blew him a kiss and went to sit next to Mum. I wasn't sure if I liked all the noise and smells and smiles. Everyone behaved a little oddly. Jake was still trying to talk. Mum kept looking at Jake. Valerie stared at Joss.
Jake suddenly got up.
“I’m going to bed,” he said, and then he just walked out and up to his bedroom. I went and sat in his warm seat. I wasn’t sure if I very much liked my family behaving so oddly, so differently to the way they normally behave. Joss looked really strange. Dennaben didn’t look as friendly as earlier, even though he smiled and talked to me. I don’t think Valerie liked Joss that much. She just stared at her the whole time. Joss and Dennaben sat down and Mum went into the kitchen to make some food and Pom-Pom Parlar. I sat and looked at the telly.
“You two enjoyed each other’s company, then?” said Valerie. They all spoke quietly and ignored me – even Dennaben. I felt a little sad about being ignored. Why were they ignoring me in my own front room? I thought about leaving but Mum walked back in with food and Pom-Pom Parlar. She smiled at me and gave me mine first, but I felt a bit tired and sad and decided I didn’t want it. This was my home and I felt a bit like I shouldn’t be there. I liked Dennaben and I love Joss, but they made my home more their home and they ignored me. I left my Pom-Pom Parlar, kissed my Mum and walked out. At least they couldn’t do that if I wasn’t there and in my room. I got to the stairs and Jake was sitting there, bent over and covered in sicky. As much as I like to annoy Jake I don’t like to see him sad or unwell. I walked back into the living room and grabbed Mum’s hand. I dragged her to the stairs and showed her what Jake had done.
“Oh, Jake. Poor boy,” said Mum. She looked at Joss as if she really didn’t like her. Joss laughed. Then Dad walked in. Everyone went quiet.
“What’s up?” said Dad. He moved like he was on a boat again.
“Look what you’ve done,” said Mum.
“What?” said Dad.
“You’ve got your fifteen year old son into this state,” screamed Mum.
Dad didn’t like being shouted at, and Mum had really shouted at him. Everybody, even Dennaben, was quiet and looking at the floor. Jake groaned. Dad said something and tried to cuddle Mum.
“Oh shut up,” screamed Mum. Dad looked at Mum, shrugged his shoulders and walked into the lounge. I felt really bad. I’d heard them shout before, but I’d never seen Mum that upset and crying. She took Jake into the bathroom and ran a bath for him. I watched. After she’d cleared up all the sicky from the floor, Jake came out of the bathroom and went straight to bed. I still felt bad. It didn’t feel like home anymore. Everybody had their own thing to do. We didn’t do stuff for each other anymore. I went to my room and got straight into bed. I tried to remember how it used to be, when Jake and Joss were happy and Mum and Dad didn’t shout at each other so much. I didn’t bother with a night Watch – instead I cried a little bit and then I fell asleep.
Morning Watch –
I woke up really late. I knew it was late, because everybody was walking around and talking. I normally get up before everybody else. Everybody seemed to be happy and laughing. That made me feel better after what had happened the night before. I heard Mum and Dad talking outside my room. After a while (they were silent for ages and then spoke in single words) Mum walked in and smiled. She gave me a kiss. She wiped her face.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” she said. Her eyes were red and she looked like she’d been crying. I said ‘alloaw’ and touched her face gently. She said some more stuff (I didn’t understand any of her words except for ‘Dennaben’ and ‘car’) before saying ‘goodbye’. She went downstairs and, after a bit more noise by everyone, it went really quiet – I realised nobody was at home. I’d been left on my own. I started to feel really worried. Mum wouldn’t leave me on my own, would she? Who would give me my breakfast and run my bath? I can’t do those things by myself. I need someone to be with me. I stayed in bed for a while and waited to hear a noise. I heard nothing. I started to get scared. Mum had just left me alone in the house. Didn’t she know that I need someone to be with me? Of course she did – she loves me. There must have been someone at home. I decided to get up and see who might be at home. Dad? I hoped so. Jake? I smiled – we would have fun together. Joss – no.
I walked downstairs and heard a noise coming from the telly. I felt so much better. Dad must have stayed home to look after me. I like it when it’s just me and Dad. Not for too long, though. I start to miss Mum after a little while. So I walked into the lounge. Dennaben was sat on the couch with his feet up on the arm, watching telly and eating a bowl of cereal. I was on my own with Dennaben. Why had they done that? I walked into the lounge and sat down and looked at Dennaben. Dennaben just watched telly and ignored me. I didn’t know what to do. I felt my throat go dry and I thought I might cry. He said nothing and just looked at the telly. I wanted to touch him or say something, but I felt scared he might ignore me even more. I remembered Grame and all the mean stuff he did to me in the field. What if Dennaben did something like that to me, even though he hasn’t got a tashey? My belly felt funny and my throat got more dry. Dennaben suddenly looked at me.
“Sorry, Ad. I was forgetting myself,” said Dennaben. He sat up straight and smiled a nice smile. “One heavily sugared tea and a large bowl of Sugar Puffs, wasn't it?”
I felt very happy and blew him a kiss. He’d said something about Sugar Puffs and Pom-Pom Parlar. He got up from the chair, turned the telly off and touched my head. As happy as I felt at him being friendly again, I wasn't sure I liked this. I liked Dennaben and he was probably my friend, but I didn’t much like the idea of being on my own with him. I followed him into the kitchen. He made me a Pom-Pom Parlar and filled my bowl with Sugar Puffs. I took my breakfast to my chair by the window and started to eat. Dennaben sat next to me and talked. I started to feel a little better.
“What do you want to do this morning then, Ad?” said Dennaben.